Still Me (Me Before You #3) - Jojo Moyes Page 0,175

weeks – could you be there to let them in? We’ll give you the firm details nearer the time.

Margot isn’t up to writing too much these days – she finds a lot of things tiring and those drugs do make her a little woozy – but I thought you’d like to know that she is being well cared for. We have decided, despite everything, we cannot bear to move her into the home so she will stay with us, with some help from the very kind medical staff. She still has plenty to say to Frank and me, oh, yes! She has us running round like headless chickens most days! I don’t mind. I quite like having someone to look after, and on her good days it’s lovely hearing all the stories of when Frank was a boy. I think he likes hearing them too, even though he won’t admit as much. Two peas in a pod, those two!

Margot asked me to ask you would you mind sending another picture of the dog? She did so like the other one you sent. Frank has put it in a lovely silver frame beside her bed and I know it is a great comfort to her as she spends so much time resting now. I can’t say I find the little fellow quite as pleasing to look at as she plainly does, but each to her own.

She sends you her love and says she hopes you’re still wearing those gorgeous stripy pantyhose. I’m not sure if that’s the pharmaceuticals talking, but I know she means well!

With warmest wishes,

Laynie G. Weber

‘Did you hear?’

I was headed out with Dean Martin to work. Summer had begun to assert its presence forcefully, every day warmer and more humid, so that the short walk to the subway left my shirt stuck to my lower back, and delivery boys exposed pale, sunburnt flesh on their bikes and swore at jaywalking tourists. But I was wearing my 1960s psychedelic dress that Sam had bought me and a pair of cork wedge shoes with pink flowers over the strap, and after the winter I’d had, the sun on my arms was like a balm.

‘Did I hear what?’

‘The library! It’s been saved! Its future has been secured for the next ten years!’ Ashok thrust his phone at me. I stopped on the carpet and lifted my sunglasses to read the text message from Meena. ‘I can’t believe it. An anonymous donation in honour of some dead guy. The – hang on, I got it here.’ He scanned the message with a finger. ‘The William Traynor Memorial Library. But who cares who it is! Funding for ten years, Louisa! And the city council has agreed! Ten years! Oh, man. Meena is over the moon. She was so sure we’d lost it.’

I peered at the phone then handed it back to him. ‘It’s a nice thing, right?’

‘It’s amazing! Who knew, Louisa? Huh? Who knew? One for the little people. Ohhh, yes!’ Ashok’s smile was enormous.

I felt something rise inside me then, a feeling of joy and anticipation so great that it seemed as if the world had briefly stopped turning, like there was just me and the universe and a million good things that could happen if you only hung on in there.

I looked down at Dean Martin, then back at the lobby. I waved to Ashok, adjusted my sunglasses and set off down Fifth Avenue, my own smile growing wider with every step.

I had only asked for five.

32

So, I guess at some point we have to talk about the fact that your year is nearly up. Do you have a date in mind to come home? I’m guessing you can’t stay in the old woman’s place for ever.

I’ve been thinking about your dress agency – Lou, you could use my house as a base if you wanted, got a lot of spare room here, completely free. If you fancied it, you could stay too.

If you think it’s too soon for that but you don’t want to disrupt your sister’s life by moving back to the flat, you could have the railway carriage? This is not my preferred option, by the way, but you always loved it and there is something quite appealing in the thought of having you just across the garden …

There is, of course, another option, which is that this is all too much and you don’t want anything to do with me, but I don’t much like that one.